We gave up (so also New English Bible; see Jerusalem Bible “we gave up the attempt”) is literally “we became silent.” The Good News Translation translation has at least two advantages: (1) in the present context the meaning of “to become silent” is that they no longer tried to convince Paul; and (2) the tense of the verb suggests that they gave up doing something they were in the process of doing. We gave up may be simply rendered as “we stopped trying to convince him” or “we stopped saying to him, You should not go.”

May the Lord’s will be done actually translates a third person imperative in Greek, something which is difficult to express in many languages, including English. Somehow the translation should indicate that this reflects a strong resolution on the part of the people, and not merely a resignation in light of some impossible circumstances, as may be suggested by “the Lord’s will be done” (New English Bible). The closest equivalent in some languages is to say “we pray that the Lord’s will may be done” or “we pray that everything will happen just as the Lord wants it.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .